Frank p



(No Model.)

vF. P. OADY.

WIRE FENCE STAY;

No. 368,807. Patented Aug. 28, 1887.

' a minimum of material.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRANK P. OADY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO FRANK P. WVHEELER,

OESAME PLACE.

WIRE-FENCE STAY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 368,807, dated August 23, 1887.

Application filed July 15, 1-886; Serial No. 208,067. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK P. CADY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Wire-Fence Stays, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in stays adapted to be applied to wire fences and to support and stiffen the wires thereof and to preserve'their proper spacing.

The object of the invention is to provide a cheap, simple, and effective stay of such construction that it may be easily and securely attached to the fence-wires, and shall have a maximum of strength and resisting power with To effect this I have combined in my improved stay two wires, one of which is a preferably straight locking-wire, while the other has formed in it at suitableintervals a series of transverse eyes adaptedto receive said locking-wire, each of said eyes at its junction with the body of the wire from which it is formed being twisted into a plane approximately at right angles to said body, in the manner shown in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figuresl and 2 are front and side elevations, respectively, of the stay applied to a fence.

In the views, A are the wires of the wire fence. B is the straight wire lying on one side of said fence-wires and forming one of the elements of the stay. 02 are the transverse eyes of the other element thereof, and D are the intermediate approximately straight portions, formed integral with and connecting the eyes and lying on the opposite side of the fence-wires from the straight wire B. Each of the eyes is twisted into a plane approximately at right angles to the line of the connecting parts D, and the contiguous ends of the two parts D D lying on opposite sides of each of the eyes d are thus twisted together and securely interlocked. The consequence of this interlocking is that each of the eyes is strengthened against any strain tending to open it or enlarge it in its own plane, and at the same time the intermediate portions, D, are so firmly locked together as to form a practically continuous wire. In fact, this element of the stay, even when disconnected from the other, offers substantially the same resistance to tensile strain as if it were a straight wire. It is plainly evident that this tensile strength is of great importance, not only when the stay is in operative position on a fence, but also in the handling which is necessarily incident to its attachment to or removal from the same.

I am aware that it has been proposed to form a fence-stay of two wires, one being straight and the other having formed in it a series of eyes adapted to receive said straight wire. In no such case, however, has it been proposed to intertwist or otherwise lock together the contiguous ends of the portion of the stay lying between and connecting said.

eyes, or in any way to strengthen againstlongitudinal extension that element of the stay in which said eyes are formed. The construction illustrated and described herein therefore produces a novel, important, and valuable difference in the completed structure, and it is this construction that I desire to secure by Letters Patent and to cover by the following claim, to wit:'

In a fence-stay, the combination, with a locking-wire, of a second wire made up of a series of eyes and corresponding portions formed integral with and connecting said eyes, each of said eyes being twisted into a plane approximately at right angles to the line of said connecting portions, and the contiguous ends of said connecting portions being thereby interlocked, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

FRANK P. GADY. 

